Life of a King is the unlikely true story of Eugene Brown and his one-man mission to give inner-city kids of Washington D.C. something he never had - a future. He discovered a multitude of life lessons through the game of chess during his 18-year incarceration for bank robbery. After his release and reentry into the workforce, Eugene developed and founded the Big Chair Chess Club to get kids off the streets and working towards lives they never believed they were capable of due to circumstances. From his daring introductory chess lessons to group of unruly high school students in detention to the development of the Club and the teens' first local chess competitions, this movie reveals his difficult, inspirational journey and how he changed the lives of a group of teens with no endgame.

Sarkhan Guliev presents a wide range of strategic manoeuvres that have been repeatedly employed by great chess players. He shows how masters generate ideas from the games of other masters: positional sacrifices, amazing counterplay concepts, unorthodox exchanges, winning with h2-h4, overcoming a blockade, the advantages of double pawns, the e5 pawn wedge, the uses of the queen-bishop battery, and much more.

In Positional Play Jacob Aagaard shares his simple three-step tool of positional analysis that he has used with club players and famous grandmasters to improve their positional decision-making. Working from the starting point that all players who aspire to play at international level have a certain amount of positional understanding, Aagaard lays out an easy-to-follow training plan that will improve everyone's intuition and positional decision-making.

If you want to improve your strategic play then it is important to study GM level strategic games with clear explanations. This was the inspiration for this Course from GM Damian Lemos, “Crushing Strategy”. Featuring 4 deeply analyzed games, GM Lemos reveals what the winners saw in the position that their opponent did not and the thinking process that allowed them to create a long-term strategy. It is this way of looking at the position and formulating a plan which will be of great help in taking the ambitious chess player’s game to the next level.

Do you instinctively know what to do in every type of chess position or are you often uncertain about how to proceed? Wouldn't it be really useful to know the best chess strategies and to recognise when they should be used? In this book Sam Collins examines key games from both the classical and modern eras. He analyses the major strategic ideas that have stood the test of time and notes their considerable influence on his own games.

The Chess Player's Mating Guide - The King in the Centre - VOL. 1 - IM Robert Ris

Catalog Code: WIN0483CB

In this first volume of the new Mating Guide series, the emphasis will be on how to exploit a vulnerably placed king in the centre. With 10 chapters, 20 illustrative games and key themes including a lead in development, preventing castling, the open e-file and different kinds of sacrifices, this DVD will show you everything you need to know to master mid-board showdowns. The level of the content means it is relevant to both beginners as well as master level players - as both elementary examples (also from my own practice) as well as classical attacking games by elite grandmasters are analysed in detail.

Which pieces to keep and which to exchange is one of the most important questions in chess. This is true in the opening, the middlegame and the endgame. Less experienced players often think exchanging means to swap pieces of equal value and fail to take strategic factors into account. The "feeling" for the right exchange is something a chessplayer has to develop over time. This DVD wants to help to develop this "feeling“.

GM Jesse Kraai explains how to use the old Russian rule set to evaluate Tempo in chess. What is Tempi or Tempo in Chess? “The gaining or losing of time and effectiveness relative to one's continued mobility or developing position, especially with respect to the number of moves required to gain an objective: Black gained a tempo”.

Kalinin helps players seeking the master title by showing how concrete knowledge leads to improved decisions at the board. A master must understand the importance of aesthetics, knows how to curb the influence of the computer, accepts that the classical heritage is essential in his development, learns the importance of human interaction in reaching analytical mastery and grasps how to spot and fight his weaknesses.

GM Eugene Perelshteyn earned his third GM norm and the title GM after sharing first place in the 2006 Foxwoods Open, He won the Samford Chess Fellowship in 2002, awarded to the top American Player under 25 years old earning $64,000, Eugene also led the Unversity of Maryland, Baltimore County to a few Pan American championships from 1998-2002.

Novice players and amateurs of intermediate strength will benefit from the explanations of ideas and tips for practical play, all presented in an easy, conversational style. More experienced competitors will appreciate this book as a game collection featuring masterpieces of enterprising play – some of them never before published.

In ''Using the Initiative'', Grandmaster Simon Williams explains the ideas behind his play in two of his games where the correct use of the initiative has proved critical. Follow Simon as he provides his audience with an essential insight into the working thought processes of a Grandmaster – a must for any chess enthusiast looking to improve!

A pair of bishops is decidedly superior to either a bishop and a knight, or two knights. A player possessing a pair of bishops has a strategic weapon in the form of a long-term threat to trade down to an advantageous endgame.

FOXY OPENINGS - VOL. 144 - Easy to Learn Step by Step Strategies On How to Think and Play Like A GrandMaster

Catalog Code: DVD0144FX

GM Gareev blasting through The 2012 North American Open scoring 8 out of 9 points and achieving a 2890 Fide performance rating!!
This DVD is a step by step guide to improve Your chess and reach your desired goals. GM Gareev will explain his thought process in tournament play, analysis and a lesson plan on concepts, tactics and strategies that will improve your game and give you a road map on thinking and playing like a GrandMaster.
Openings covered Queens Indian, Pirc, Grunfeld, Queens Gambit Accepted & Declined, Hedgehog, Exchange Ruy Lopez, Tactical Ideas in The Italian Game

This DVD consists of studying the strategic game, while acting as a guide for learning how Super GMs dominate positional chess. Over the course of these videos you will see master games explained in-depth by GM Lemos, placing emphasis on every move, explaining the motive and the distinct reasoning and thinking that causes GMs to make certain decisions.

This course features about 400 exercises with large number of pieces in play. All exercises are taken from actual games. Find the only way to avoid checkmate! This course is for beginners and club players.

Are you serious about becoming a strong, perhaps even titled, player? Positional chess understanding is what separates the great from the good. Imagine you’re in the last round of a major international tournament, half a point behind your opponent. A victory will guarantee 1st place and a $20,000 prize. As you play, everything on the board is clear to you. You play moves restricting your opponent until he can only shuffle his pieces back and forth whilst yours grow ever more powerful. When every piece is ideally placed, you smash open the position, your opponent defenceless. A short while later, he offers his hand in resignation and you know you’ve done it!

Want to improve at chess? Then you'll need to improve your understanding of chess strategy. You probably knew that already - but how to begin to study such a vast and seemingly complex subject? International Master Adam Hunt is a full-time chess teacher and is thus very familiar with this problem. His solution is to present an accessible and easy-to-read guide for club players and juniors. Hunt studies all the key components of chess strategy, including development, king safety, attack and defence, initiative, pawn play and much more. He examines not only grandmaster games but also those played by students, demonstrates model strategic play, identifies typical mistakes and explains how to avoid them. Move by Move provides an ideal platform to study chess

We have all seen games – and perhaps even played them – in which a difficult or lost game is salvaged by a brilliant drawing combination. In the early 1970s, Soviet International Master Leonid Verkhovsky collected some of the most fantastic draws ever played.

Studies prove: the more patterns you know, the better you play. On this DVD GM Adrian Mikhalchishin presents games of the World Champions of the past to explain typical patterns and strategic concepts of these games and to show how grandmasters apply these ideas today. Mikhalchishin offers a wealth of material that helps you to improve your games and teaches you the art of pattern recognition and analogical thinking – a key to success that helped the author to win many games and that will help you to win more games and play better.

Understanding how to use pawns and how to handle different pawn structures are important topics for young or improving players to consider. On this new ChessBase DVD, IM and FIDE Senior Trainer Andrew Martin investigates the notion that ‘pawns are the soul of chess’ and tries to explain exactly what this means. The effective use of pawns in the opening leads to the correct development of the pieces and a good game springs naturally from there. The pawn structure must be considered throughout the game and this is something that Martin also touches upon. The viewer will be treated to a tour of excellent games, both old and new, many from the period 2012-2014, which highlight key ideas about the correct use of pawns and from which one cannot fail to improve one’s technique. Thus this DVD is ideal for players below 1800 or indeed ambitious players of any level.

There isn’t a chessplayer who hasn’t struggled with doubled pawns. Are they strong because they oversee and surveil important squares or reinforce defensive ramparts? Are they weak, prone to being collected by our opponent in the endgame – or sooner? In the first work devoted exclusively to this topic, the author examines the various pawn structures in which doubled pawns appear.

In this instructive and entertaining book, Grandmaster Neil McDonald studies in depth the key components of successful rule-breaking in chess. Drawing upon his own experience and using examples from modern grandmaster chess, McDonald examines how to avoid stereotypical thinking, how to exploit typical thinking patterns, and how to confuse and beat opponents with surprising ideas.

Aimed at club, congress and county players, this DVD provides a vital insight into how a grandmaster thinks and the reasoning behind his choice of moves. In this DVD, Danny provides useful guidance to players who are looking to improve their thinking during a game by analysing the typical strategic plans from the opening until late in the middlegame. Are you ready to go beyond the basics? If the answer is a resounding ‘yes’ then follow Danny as he explains the fundamental ideas and principles behind some of the most complex and challenging positions.

Want to improve at chess? Then you'll need to improve your understanding of chess strategy. You probably knew that already - but how to begin to study such a vast and seemingly complex subject? International Master Adam Hunt is a full-time chess teacher and is thus very familiar with this problem. His solution is to present an accessible and easy-to-read guide for club players and juniors. Hunt studies all the key components of chess strategy, including development, king safety, attack and defence, initiative, pawn play and much more. He examines not only grandmaster games but also those played by students, demonstrates model strategic play, identifies typical mistakes and explains how to avoid them. Move by Move provides an ideal platform to study chess

Bryan takes us through various strategies for using Pawns in your game. Illustrated with real games the lectures cover topes of : Pawns In the attack, Petrosian's Pawn Artistry, Doubled Pawns and Weak Squares, Break the Rules Sometimes, Breaking Through the Pawn Chain.

How should systematic chess coaching be structured so that students are able to use their freshly acquired knowledge in their own games? Author Stefan Becker came to an astonishingly simple answer. The solution to every chess problem lies on the board.

To win games against strong players you need an extra set of skills to the usual attacking ideas. There are many careful players who will close the position or passively defend until you try something too optimistic, giving away material or making a concession which eventually allows them to win. Incredibly frustrating! To beat these guys you need to master the art of positional chess and that is exactly what GM Damian Lemos helps you achieve in “Positional Mastery”. By studying the textbook examples in this Course you will learn how to constantly ask questions of your opponent, forcing them to solve subtle problems until they make a mistake and you win.

In this DVD Eugene stresses “It is the pawns that define our middle game, attacking potential and control of empty squares”. Gain his insight and strategically winning tips. Instructive tips about keeping the tension in a position, both in theory and in practice.